Eastern District of California Blog

Informant In SK Foods/Salyer Case Gets Probation

After FBI and IRS agents raided his Turlock home in August 2006 looking for evidence that he embezzled money from a former employer, Anthony Ray Manuel decided to steer them in another direction and gamble that the move would eventually earn him leniency.

He was then working at SK Foods L.P., one of California’s major processors and wholesalers of food products – primarily tomato paste – and owned by Frederick Scott Salyer, grandson of a storied San Joaquin Valley land baron.

Manuel suggested that the exploits at SK Foods made his theft of $975,000 from Woodland’s Morningstar Packing Co. look like jaywalking.

The assertion got the agents’ attention, and the information Manuel provided in the ensuing months touched off an investigation that led to an astounding series of successful prosecutions and one of the biggest scandals ever to hit the food industry.

The strategy paid big dividends for Manuel on Tuesday.

He was sentenced to two years of probation on his guilty plea more than five years ago to wire fraud and preparing a false federal income tax return for 2003.

Prosecutor Matt Segal convinced a reluctant U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton that the extent of Manuel’s assistance should spare the 61-year-old a prison term.

Sacramento Bee, 6/17/14

Ninth Circuit Orders Restitution Hearings In Two EDCA Cases

The Ninth Circuit granted writs of mandamus directing the EDCA Court to hold restitution hearings under the Crime Victims Rights Act in two separate cases.  

In In re Morning Star Packing Company, No. 13-71038 (9th Cir. 3/29/13), the Court remanded for a further restitution hearing in the high-profile Frederick Scott Salyer prosecution.  See Sacramento Bee, 3/30/13.

In In re Amy and Vicky, No. 13-70858 (9th Cir. 3/18/13), the Court remanded for a restitution determination in a child pornography case.

SK Foods Frederick Scott Salyer Sentenced To Six Years Prison

The Sacramento Bee today had this pre-sentencing piece and this post-sentencing article about Frederick Scott Salyer's sentencing this morning, which included this excerpt:

"My life is effectively over," the 57-year-old tomato king of California said in federal court in Sacramento on Tuesday morning as he pleaded for leniency in a racketeering and price-fixing case the government has pursued for nearly six years.

In the end, Salyer got a six-year sentence and the judge recommended that he serve it in the minimum-security prison camp at Lompoc, 175 miles north of Los Angeles.

He was ordered to report April 9.

His sentencing by U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton came after about an hour of back-and-forth between the attorneys and an emotional plea to the judge by Salyer that left his two grown daughters weeping in the overflow audience.

"I regret my behavior and I take full responsibility for my conduct," the onetime head of Monterey's SK Foods LP told Karlton as he read from a prepared text. "I'm sorry for my actions, and I will regret that for the rest of my life."

Prosecutors sought a seven-year sentence, while Salyer's lawyers fought for a four-year term.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/12/5185540/tomato-king-salyer-gets-6-years.html#storylink=cpy

SK Foods Salyer Sentencing Moved To February 15, 2013

Former SK Foods CEO Scott Salyer's sentencing has been continued to February 15, 2013. [2/8/13 Update: Sentencing has been moved up to February 12, 2013].   Prosecutors are seeking (what a surprise) the maximum 7-year term permitted by the conditional plea agreement.  Monterey Herald, 1/25/13

Salyer Sentencing Moved to February 5

Former SK Foods CEO Scott Salyer's sentencing before Judge Karlton has been moved to February 5, 2013.

Salyer Sentencing Continued to January

For those following the case, Frederick Scott Salyer's sentencing has been continued to January 8, 2013.

Salyer Sentencing Continued To November

According to the Contra Costa Times, 8/23/12, the sentencing of Frederick Scott Salyer has been pushed back to November 27, 2012.

Salyer Sentencing Continued To September

Scott Salyer will have a couple of more months before facing a federal judge and a probable multi-year prison sentence, but the rules on his 20-month-old home confinement won't be relaxed.  Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton rebuffed a request by Salyer to relax the 24-hour-a-day restrictions on his movement from his Pebble Beach home.

Monterey Herald, 5/30/12

Salyer Pleads Guilty

After more than six years of investigation, poring over more than 1 million documents and wiretaps, and the guilty pleas of 10 midlevel food-industry executives, the federal government hit the bull's-eye Friday.

Frederick Scott Salyer, the 56-year-old scion of one of California's most colorful and prominent agriculture families, pleaded guilty to racketeering and price-fixing in a deal favorable to him that calls for no more than seven years in prison.

Salyer, the former owner and chief executive officer of SK Foods LP in Monterey and a multimillionaire whose firm provided tomato products that ended up in most of the homes in this country, had faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted at trial of plotting widespread bribery as part of a conspiracy to gain the upper hand on his competitors.

Sacramento Bee, 3/24/12; see also Monterey Herald, 3/24/12.

Court Rules Prosecutors Can Listen To Salyer's Calls From Sacramento Jail

Federal courts are closed Monday for Presidents Day. 

In today's Sacramento Bee, Denny Walsh has this piece on Magistrate Judge Brennan's ruling that prosecutors can review "Tomato King" Frederick Scott Salyer's phone calls from the Sacramento jail with a San Jose attorney on the ground that the attorney-client privilege does not apply because the calls were primarily personal rather than for legal purposes (except for 5 calls found to be privileged).  See also Monterey Herald, 2/16/12.  While this may all end up being much ado about nothing, the defense might still decide to appeal the magistrate's ruling to district judge Karlton.